Here’s this week’s 200 word idea from Decisive by Chip Heath and Dan Heath
In 1954, Sam Walton, the owner of a variety store in Bentonville, Arkansas, learnt that a Ben Franklin store was trying out a new kind of centralized check-out system at one end of the store. So, he took a 12 hour (!) bus ride to check it out.
Contrary to the old idea of checking out at every department (hence the name “departmental store”), this ensured efficiency, less employee theft, and more centralized control. Sam Walton immediately adopted the approach. Years later, as Wal-Mart CEO, Walton would spend hours at competitor stores studying their processes and copying their product ranges. He claimed to have visited more K-mart stores than anyone else.
Sam Walton realized that decision making can be lonely. So, he found clever solutions by asking himself – “Who else is struggling with a similar problem and what can I learn from them?”
Source and thanks to: www.EBSketchin.com
‘Most everything I’ve done, I’ve copied from someone else.’ | Sam Walton
A Learning a Day 